


A Mother's Touch

by L_awlietxoxx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 21:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9257276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_awlietxoxx/pseuds/L_awlietxoxx
Summary: Albus and Scorpius's relationship was never going to be easy - being who they are and who their fathers are. Add the natural ineptitude of teenaged boys for communication or expressing their feelings, and a disaster may brew. Sometimes, emotions are too big for words and too much to handle alone. Sometimes, you just need a mother's touch.Lucky for them both, Ginny Potter is a very perceptive woman.





	

"Pssst. Scorp... Scorpius!" 

Albus's head barely fit into the crack he'd opened in the door to whisper through. He kept looking up and down the hallway to check if anyone was awake to see him, though he had no real reason to be so paranoid at his sister's bedroom door in his own house. 

Scorpius rolled over in bed with a grumble and squinted in the direction of the door. 

"Albus?" He whispered back.

Since second year when Scorpius had regularly started spending part of the Christmas holidays at the Potters' house, he had always stayed in Lily's room while Lily stayed with James. It had been her own generous suggestion, much to everyone's surprise - But really, she loved any excuse for sleepovers with her eldest brother. But now, Albus was coming to find that arrangement less than satisfactory.

"You still awake?" Albus murmured, finally poking his head into the room.

"More or less. What is it?"

"Um. Well..." This had seemed like such a good, simple idea when Albus had undertaken it, but now he found himself unexpectedly tongue-tied.

"Well... I was just thinking- wondering if... you wanted to, um, ... come over to mine. My room."

For best mates, the suggestion was commonplace enough. After all, it was nightly routine at Hogwarts to keep each other up until late with whispered jokes and conversations from their neighboring beds in their dormitory. 

But... here, 'my room' meant a room to themselves alone. And the nervousness in Albus's voice in the nighttime stillness gave silent testament to what really stuck behind the invitation. 

'My room' meant 'my bed'.

Scorpius was about to ask whether they might get in trouble, but then rethought it. His heart had picked up a bit at Albus's unexpected visit, and he really didn't want to be the one to give any reason against the suggestion. With each passing second, he yearned more and more for everything implicated in Albus's words. Plus, from anyone else's perspective, mates sleeping over in each other's rooms was really nothing to raise eyebrows...

Albus shuffled a bit at the door, and Scorpius suddenly realized how long he'd been silent.

"Yeah! I mean, yes... I'm coming." 

The sound of rustling blankets as Scorpius got out of bed covered Albus's relieved sigh.

They tiptoed down to Albus' room like convicts escaping, smiling and silently nudging each other along.

Albus's room was well familiar to Scorpius by now, and as soon as Scorpius quietly closed the door, they slid into Albus's bed together. Albus passed over more than an equal share of the blankets, and they both immediately gravitated towards the middle of the bed, facing each other with their heads lying close and their hands loosely finding each other's in between. They both felt a bit giddy, like young children with a thrilling secret their smiles might give away.

"Lucky your bed is bigger than our school ones," Scorpius murmured. 

A silent, warm thrill went through both of them at the intimacy of the whisper, with Scorpius's breath ghosting against Albus's lips and his voice taking that soft tone meant only for Albus.

"Bet yours at the Manor is bigger."

"Yours is more cozy though." 

Scorpius raised a hand to rest his fingertips against Albus's cheek. Albus swallowed. Scorpius added, "but I expected that, as long as you're in it."

After sinking deeper and deeper into the soft intensity of Scorpius's grey eyes, Albus found himself shuffling closer. His hands moved to Scorpius's chest, seeking more of the feeling of his warmth.

"I'm really glad you're here," Albus whispered. 

Scorpius just smiled wide and pure - not needing clarification. He knew every way Albus meant the words, and Scorpius felt each one in his own heart in turn.

The first kiss wasn't so much a conscious decision - it was a natural, unbreakable gravity that brought their lips together in the most sincere, honest exchange of feelings that resisted being tamed by words.

~

Two chairs were empty at the breakfast table the next morning. Growing increasingly vexed by her son and his friend's absence, and by the refusal of their many wake up calls while breakfast grew cold, Ginny finally marched upstairs herself. She passed Lily's room first and gave the door a firm rap. 

"Scorpius, dear, it's time to get up! Wouldn't want to let James and Lily eat everything, would you?" 

At first she continued on down the corridor, then paused with a puzzled expression. Usually, Scorpius was an exceedingly polite and well-mannered boy, who always listened to what he was told - much less ignored whenever she knocked at the room where he was staying. 

Apprehensively, Ginny backtracked and knocked at the door again. When no answer came, she pushed the door open. She checked the bathroom and James's room for safe measure, before hurrying to Albus's. She quickly barged in after little more than a perfunctory knock.

"Albus! Did something happen to Scorpius last night? He's gone from Lily's room..."

Startled at being awoken by her sudden entrance - not one but two heads popped up from beneath the blankets on Albus's bed. Ginny fell abruptly silent.

Once the haze of sleep cleared enough for the boys to fully take in the situation, their faces quickly grew matching fiery red. Scorpius meekly slid downwards until he was half-covered by the blankets again, as if hiding from sight could make everyone forget he was there.

"Uhm, good-... Good morning, Mum," Albus attempted after noisily clearing his throat. "Sorry, I - or uh, we'll be right there."

Ginny finally managed to school her expression, quickly becoming aware of how important her reaction would be to her son.

"Right. I'll do my best to keep James from inhaling everything, but you two best get on your feet." 

She moved to leave and had the door half-closed, before pausing. She turned to add one more thing - "Albus, do you want me to keep this a secret from your father until you're ready to talk to him about it yourself?"

A rush of gratitude to his mother washed over Albus.

"Please, if you would?" Ginny nodded, and the reassuring smile she sent made Albus respond in kind. "Thanks, Mum." 

The door closed. Ginny's steps moved away down the corridor before disappearing down the stairs.

Both boys let out a loud breath, sinking back against the pillows together.

"By Dumbledore," Scorpius groaned, half muffled under blankets. He finally fully peeked his head out from underneath. "You think she really won't tell him?"

"'Course not. We can trust her." Albus looked down at Scorpius beside him. "Are you afraid of my dad finding out?"

"Aren't you?" Scorpius asked, big eyes turning up towards Albus.

"It's hard to explain..." Albus muttered, sinking down under the blankets more until he was about level with Scorpius. "Not scared really, no. Things have been a lot better with him lately... We've been talking more. He's coming to understand better - Even though some things are different and harder for me, I want him to accept me for how I am. Like being a Potter in Slytherin, even though I wouldn't change it and I'm proud of it. 

“And I know he'll come to understand this too. It might take a bit of time but... No, I'm not scared. Once he gets his head around it..."

"Do you think he's ever suspected?"

Albus shook his head. "I only just realized it myself, and there was no one before you. Mums might have an intuition about that sort of thing, though."

Scorpius's hands started playing with the edges of the blankets. "My mum knew. About me."

"Really?" Albus's voice fell quiet and attentive, tuned to Scorpius's every word and need whenever he brought up his mother.

"I think she just sensed it. Dunno how... Maybe how I talked or acted or something. I had thought it about myself a few times before and thought it might be possible... But it wasn't until you that I knew without a doubt. Then things she'd said earlier made sense - about how it was okay being different. How she'd love me no matter what."

Albus moved one hand across to slide his fingers between Scorpius's.

"Luckily she never breathed a word to Dad. Really have no idea how he'd react. I've got to wait for the right time, figure out the right way to tell him..."

After a long moment of silence, Albus added, "Yeah... I guess being who we are and the fact that our dads hate each other doesn't help."

"But they did work pretty well together that night at Godric's Hollow."

"True, they did."

Albus rolled over closer, so their noses were almost touching and he could flash Scorpius a private smile - trying to draw him back from the morose depths Scorpius tended to sink into whenever he spoke about his mother. 

"And the more time you spend here, the more Dad comes to like you and let go of his stupid grudge from the past."

"You think?"

"I know - Just like Mum and Dad both know you've been nothing but the best friend to me. It'll be alright. It's just a question of timing." 

Albus paused and looked down to where he was still holding Scorpius's hand - his thumb tracing over the back of his knuckles. 

"What about your dad?"

"I keep asking whenever I catch him in a good mood, and I think I've almost gotten his permission for you to visit the Manor over the summer holidays." Scorpius sighed, a troubled frown growing across his face. "It's so frustrating. The conversation always ends with him muttering something like 'Me, inviting a Potter into the house? Never thought I'd see the day’.”

Albus pulled Scorpius's hand to his lips and briefly kissed the back of his fingers. 

"We'll get there, Scorp. It means a lot to me too that he likes me, but... honestly what really matters to me at the end of the day-..."

"-is just that you like me," Scorpius finished, then smiled sheepishly, blushing a little. 

Albus's heart did a mini handstand in his chest.

"Spot on."

They were silent for a long beat, just smiling at one another. Then the vision of Albus’s mother appearing in the doorway flashed suddenly and clearly before Scorpius’s eyes…

"Let's get downstairs before your mum sends a howler." 

“Right. Guess we’d better,” Albus replied… though without any sign of getting up, or even diverting his gaze anywhere other than Scorpius. Scorpius couldn’t help smiling a bit despite himself.

“Guess so,” Scorpius repeated. 

Just as he began to move to get up from the bed, Albus grabbed his hand and pressed a last kiss to his lips.

“Okay. Now we can go,” Albus amended, finally rolling out of bed with a grin.

~

When they finally appeared at the breakfast table, still sleep-rumpled and in pajamas - as was customary during school holidays - both Albus and Scorpius stayed unusually quiet.

"Enjoy your lie-in, you two? Must have been up to no good last night," James teased in his normal fashion through his last bites of toast, thoroughly oblivious to the paranoid looks Albus and Scorpius threw each other. Luckily, he didn't look at his brother or his friend long enough to catch their anxious looks, before he and Lily finished and left the room. 

Albus breathed a sigh of relief, but stayed quiet as he finished his breakfast. His mother had come into the kitchen and started clearing the dishes.

They had almost finished eating when Ginny finally spoke, her back turned to the table as she worked at the sink. 

"Listen, boys... I hope you know - When I said I would wait until you thought it was the right time to tell your father, Albus, it wasn't because it's anything you need to keep secret." 

She turned to face Albus with her soapy hands still hovering over the sink. She offered a reassuring smile when she saw the pale look on her son's face over the topic of discussion. 

"You don't have any reason to feel ashamed or like you have to hide it - Either of you. I know Harry can be a bit thick and might be caught off guard at first, but at the end of the day, we're both happy with whatever makes you happy, Albus." 

Scorpius had been staring resolutely down at his plate, looking interchangeably relieved and uncomfortable. 

"And you too, Scorpius." He looked up quickly, surprised. "I'm sure your father will accept what makes you happy. You let me know if he gives you any trouble and I'll vouch for you two. I know he hasn't had the chance to get to know Albus yet, but I'd tell him, or anyone who asks, that you two are obviously nothing but a gift to each other. I couldn't be happier that you're the one to fill this place in Albus's life. I know you're good for him."

"Mum..." Albus looked overwhelmed with both awe and appreciation for his mother. Ginny gave him a smile and dried her hands, so she could step over to ruffle Albus's hair. 

"Still just as unruly as your father's. Don't think that's ever going to change."

"Muuum," Albus half-whined now, a much different tone than a moment before. 

Scorpius couldn't stop staring at their interaction, watching with so many emotions flying and fighting within him, his face simply looked blank.

"Scorpius? Are you okay?" Albus asked when he noticed his friend's odd but intense expression, after Ginny had moved back towards the sink. Giving himself a sudden small shake, Scorpius inhaled sharply and nodded quickly. 

"Yeah, yeah, fine." He hunched over his plate to quickly finish eating his breakfast.

~

Outside later, the two dragged old brooms from the shed and chased each other around the yard a bit. All the low-hanging trees made the business quite treacherous and didn’t let them gain much speed or height from the ground, but they nonetheless managed quite an epic pretend Quidditch game – complete with dramatic narration. 

“It’s not like you to let me score the winning goal,” Albus commented once their feet were planted safely on the ground again. “You always come up with a time extension or foul or something so you can catch the Snitch in time.”

It took an extra beat for Scorpius to look up from the ground, stumbling a tiny bit as the vacancy of his thoughts made him miscalculate his step.

Albus’s look turned concerned, immediately reaching out to steady his friend. “You’ve been a bit off since breakfast… Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, Albus, fine,” Scorpius said again, giving Albus a smile in effort to prove it. But when Albus held his gaze with a disbelieving, penetrating look, Scorpius drooped a bit. “Well, I just… I can’t help thinking…”

Scorpius stood very stiffly for a moment, just staring at the broom in his hands and twisting the worn, wooden shaft back and forth between his hands a few times. 

“It was a really nice thing, what your Mum said this morning.”

“Oh. Yeah it was…,” The words caught Albus a bit off guard. He hadn’t expected that to stay with Scorpius so much. “I told you, you didn’t have to worry about her knowing. She can keep a secret.”

Albus said it casually, then turned towards the shed to put his broom away. Scorpius looked up suddenly, stopping him with a question delivered a little too sharply, a little too nervously.

“How long will we keep it a secret?” When Albus looked back at him with a perplexed expression, Scorpius cleared his throat and dropped his gaze, clearly off balance. “From your dad, I mean?”

“I don’t…” Albus gave an unsure, slightly awkward laugh. He could sense he was missing something, but hadn’t a clue what Scorpius was really on about. “I thought this morning… we agreed we need to wait for the right time to tell both our dads. They both have to get to know us a bit better – realize whatever grudges they still have against each other don’t mean anything to us.”

“Of course. Right…” 

But now Scorpius was looking away, his fingers fretting anxiously over the edge of his jumper sleeve while his bottom lip disappeared behind his teeth. 

A lot had happened this morning that Scorpius neither expected nor fully understood. A lot was cartwheeling around through his head. His alarm when Mrs. Potter found them in Albus’s bed together had hit him hard, only to do a one-eighty into the unexpected sanctuary of her words at breakfast. Words that meant more than Scorpius could even quite describe – coming from the mother of his best friend in the world, and a Potter, no less, who had plenty of historical reason to resent both him and his intimacy with Albus.

Even so, the bitter, troubling taste of fleetingness stuck to his tongue. If Albus’s mother could deliver such relief in a single exchange… Couldn’t Albus’s father deliver something equally powerful, but terrible, in just as short a time? It could come as easily as breath and words… couldn’t it? 

“Scorp…” 

Albus gave a furtive look around the yard. Seeing no one around or any faces through the windows inside, Albus took hold of Scorpius’s sleeve and pulled him towards the shed. Scorpius’s arms wind milled for a second to keep his balance when Albus suddenly lurched him forward.

In the cover of the shed, Albus stepped close. He threaded the fingers of one hand through Scorpius’s. 

“Are you sure you’re okay? What’s gotten into you? Are you…uncomfortable that my Mum knows? That she saw us?”

“No, I’m actually fine with that… Now that I know she’s really fine with it too…” His voice trailed off. His hand squeezed Albus’ back. “I don’t even really know…” He gave a slow, deep breath. “I was so busy worrying what our dads would think, I forgot that Mums’ opinions count for a lot, too. Maybe it’s just been a while since anyone’s… since anyone’s talked to me like that. And I know she was talking way more to you than me, since you’re her son after all…”

Albus’s heart lurched in his chest – with pain, then self-admonishment. He had never even thought… 

He slid his arms around Scorpius’s neck and buried himself in tight against Scorpius’s chest. Albus just held him for a few moments, before words came to him.

“It is pretty incredible, isn’t it? What a Mum’s acceptance can do?”

Scorpius tipped his head forward into the gentle curve of Albus’s neck. He held onto the back of Albus’s shirt.

“You could say that.” 

Years ago, Scorpius couldn’t appreciate the full importance of his own mother’s acceptance. He’d still been figuring out his own feelings – too confused by his own head to worry about anyone else’s. 

But it was different now, when he and Albus had discovered such a wonderful thing between them, but apprehension of their father’s opinions stretched a shadow over them both. Scorpius wished there could still be some way to thank her – for understanding what he couldn’t yet, and loving him anyway. He wished, when he felt so at the mercy of his father’s judgment, that he still had someone he could always rely on for protection … for ruffling his hair at the breakfast table…

“Sorry, Albus,” Scorpius mumbled, trying to sniff his nose as surreptitiously as possible as he straightened up again. “The stupidest things get to me sometimes.”

“It’s okay.” Albus smiled at him supportively. He lifted a hand to cup Scorpius’s face and stroked his thumb against Scorpius’s cheek before pressing a brief kiss there. 

“It’s alright.”

~

Once the lights went out and everyone had gone to their respective rooms, footsteps crept down the upstairs hallway. They tried their best to be as silent as possible.

Albus was already standing there with his bedroom door cracked open, peering out into the dimly lit hallway. 

“Tomorrow night we should just pretend we’re staying up late in here to finish a game or something,” Albus whispered as he closed the door once Scorpius was inside.

“Ah, but that takes away half the forbidden excitement, doesn’t it?” Scorpius wiggled his eyebrows in a way intended to be scandalous.

Both snickering and smiling, they climbed into Albus’s bed and fit themselves together in the middle. 

“We’ll just have to make sure we’re down for breakfast this time,” Scorpius murmured, his lips right close to Albus’s ear while Albus’s head pillowed against his shoulder.

“Mmm, no problem,” Albus mumbled with a yawn as he settled in against Scorpius’s side. 

With one last kiss above Albus’s eyebrow, Scorpius closed his eyes. Even after all the odd, unexpected emotions of the day, Albus’s warmth and the sound of his soft breathing was all the protection Scorpius needed.

~

Scorpius dreams of stairs. Moving, inescapable, trapping... 

He keeps seeing Albus ahead – at the top of the staircase, but when Scorpius rushes up to reach him, he can’t find him. It happens again and again… Albus seeming so close, but each time proving unreachable. 

Then, Albus starts fading. Scorpius grows increasingly desperate, rushing up and down what seem more and more like never-ending staircases, twisting and turning in an undefeatable maze. 

Solitude closes in. Scorpius can feel it like a dark shade, a wet blanket threatening to smother him. Struggling against the weight that’s all too familiar, yet absent for so long that Scorpius had almost forgotten its darkness, he looks around increasingly desperately for any sign of Albus. 

He suddenly hears his friend’s voice, calling his name. Scorpius shouts back, the hysteria rising beyond his control. 

“Albus? Albus!!”

Finally, Scorpius sees him. The staircases have multiplied, in a hallway too tall and large to be real. They stretch before him beyond count, and he can just barely make out Albus across the gulf. He thinks he sees Albus reach for him, but then some force pulls Albus away. 

There’s no sight of him anymore.

“Albus!” 

The steps beneath Scorpius’s feet suddenly go slippery, then collapse. He loses his footing, and he falls. For a long time. Around him, there’s simply nothing, and no one.

~

Harry was actually home for dinner the next day. 

“Scorpius. Good to see you. I trust you and Albus have been enjoying the holidays. Not getting up to too much trouble, I hope.”

Harry’s smile was friendly enough, but as always, Scorpius found himself tongue-tied. His usual chatterbox tendencies went silent around the older Potter, under pressure to avoid saying anything too… Malfoy-esque. He knew Harry never liked the idea of him, so Scorpius did everything he could to keep however Mr. Potter pictured him and the reality as far, far apart as possible. 

But of course, Scorpius really had no idea how Mr. Potter pictured him, so sometimes it’s an impossible task. Better he not say anything at all. 

Luckily, Albus’s response was immediate. A roll of the eyes and, “What trouble could we even get up to at the house here?”

“True, not quite the same potential as all the forbidden corners at Hogwarts.”

Ginny shot him a sharp look. “Not that you’re endorsing all those forbidden corners…”

Harry laughed and threw his hands up in mock defense. “Of course not, of course not.” But he snuck a look back at Albus, and father and son quickly shot each other the matching grins of troublemakers. 

“No, no, Albus knows better than to go looking for trouble. Don’t you, Albus?”

“Completely. Had enough trouble already for one lifetime, thank you. And I think Scorpius agrees.”

When Albus elbowed him into the conversation, Scorpius wasn’t sure to feel relieved or betrayed. 

“Oh, completely. Yes.”

Jovial smiles still ringed the table, but the air went quieter as Ginny placed dinner on the table. Everyone sat back for a moment as Ginny served Lily first, then began filling up everyone’s plates in turn.

“How has your father been, Scorpius? Haven’t seen him since last year. I’m always so swamped at the Ministry, I hardly get out of my office…”

Scorpius almost choked as he swallowed, momentarily unable to get out even a ‘thank you’ to Mrs. Potter as she set down a plate with an extra helping in front of him. Scorpius couldn’t say whether he only imagined or not how the whole room’s atmosphere seemed to tense.

“He’s –ah,… fine. Just fine. Well. Busy as always. Don’t see too much of him, really. My only being home on holidays and all…”

A silence ensued which Ginny quickly filled, after her eyes spent a moment darting keenly between Harry and Scorpius. 

“We would be delighted to see him over the holidays. That is, if you want to invite him, Scorpius, it’s up to you.”

“Up to me?”

“Well, I figure if Albus were the one spending holidays at your house, he’d probably be glad to be rid of us and quite annoyed if we were invited too.”

Albus made a sputtering, defensive noise and protested around a mouthful of spaghetti, “I would not.”

“Albus, wipe your mouth, dear,” Ginny said with a sigh. Scorpius glanced over just in time to see tomato sauce all over Albus’s chin before he wiped it away. Scorpius snickered until a glare from Albus shut him up again. 

“That’s a bit odd to imagine, isn’t it?” Harry said, looking towards Ginny but speaking in an open musing tone. “Inviting Draco over? Last time he was in this kitchen, he and I dueled on this table.”

“You did?!” Albus and James exclaimed together in disbelief.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Ginny said quickly, shooting both boys a stern glare. “Besides, that’s not the example we want to be setting, is it, Harry?”

“No, no, of course not…”

Scorpius didn’t hear any more of the dinner conversation. He kept staring into his plate, his stomach feeling increasingly unreceptive. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about his dream.

~

“Scoooorpius… Scorpius! Are you in there?”

Scorpius was suddenly reeled back from a deep, distant corner of his head where he didn’t often frequent. He looked up to find both Albus and Lily peering at him with matching expressions of amused puzzlement.

Scorpius looked down to the game spread on the floor between the three of them.

“Exploding Snap doesn’t require that much strategizing. Think it’s been your turn for a good five minutes now.”

“Sorry…” was all Scorpius could reply, immediately making Albus’s face grow softer and attentive with concern.

“Got a stomachache or something, Scorpius?” Lily asked. “I always make faces like that when I’ve got one…”

“Sorry,” Scorpius repeated again, but this time clumsy movements accompanied the word. “You guys best finish playing without me.”

“What? What’s wrong?” Albus immediately sought clarification, but Scorpius had already left the room, hunched over a bit and holding his head. 

 

“Okay, you’re going to tell me what this is about.”

Albus stood in the doorway of the bathroom, blocking Scorpius’s way out with his arms crossed.

“You’ve been acting absent and weird since yesterday. I’m worried.”

Albus stood with his shoulders pushed back and his arms firmly locked, but his attempted stern expression betrayed confusion and a little bit of fear on his friend’s behalf. That, paired with the fluffy remnants of his bedhead and the blue stripey jumper that was Scorpius’s absolute favorite on him, only made Scorpius look at him in besotted amusement.

When nothing seemed forthcoming, Albus pressed more earnestly, “It’s important that friends communicate, right? And…” He gave a quick check in the hallway behind him to make sure it was clear, but lowered his voice nonetheless, “…don’t make me pull the relationship communication card.”

“I’m not trying to keep anything from you, Albus. I’m not hiding anything. …Sorry I can’t explain it better…”

“Stop apologizing so much,” Albus interjected softly. “I just…just want to be here for you. That’s all. I haven’t always done a good job of noticing the things that are bothering you. I just want you to talk to me.”

“There’s just… a lot going on in my head all of a sudden that I don’t quite get.”

“Can you put them in a category at least? Things about… school? About your dad? Something else?”

“All of that, you could say… But also… us. I had an odd dream about you last night. A terrible one.”

“About me?” Albus looked startled by that. Scorpius using that troubled tone on the word ‘us’ was something he never wanted to hear. Especially not in a conversation like this… 

“There’s nothing going on with us, is there? I mean, nothing that shouldn’t be going on…”

“Of course not. But I guess… after we talked about trying to win our dads over, how we’re trying so hard… It’s a scary idea, if they find out in the wrong way, before we’re ready…”

“I know it is,” Albus agreed, his voice dropping to a hushed tone as he took a step closer into the bathroom. “But like Mum said yesterday, it’s not like it’s a terrible secret, or like we’ve done anything wrong. We shouldn’t be ashamed…”

“I’m not,” Scorpius blurted out quickly. “Ashamed.” Maybe too quickly.

…But could that perhaps be some part of it? His own thoughts seemed so clouded, so twisted up. Nothing related to Albus had ever been something he would be embarrassed about in his life. But… why had their relationship suddenly opened this nervous quake in his chest?

“I think I just need time, Albus.”

“Time?” Albus asked with no small amount of trepidation. 

Scorpius noticed Albus’s fearful expression and tried to amend himself, “I didn’t mean that to sound so serious.”

“You’re staying in my house, you’re sharing my bed, I share everything with you… I can see something’s really nagging you and when I try to ask you about it you say you need time?”

Scorpius couldn’t help a flair of indignation. “Look, if this is just because you feel guilty or something, being aggressive now about my problems doesn’t fix things you missed in the past.”

Albus stood ramrod straight, his expression shocked and wounded. 

After a long, tense silence, Scorpius finally added lowly, “I just need some space. For me, for both of us. … I’ll stay in my own room tonight.”

When he moved towards the door, Albus didn’t try to stop him.

~

Neither slept well that night. It had only been a few nights since Scorpius had started sneaking into his room at night, but somehow Albus’s bed felt far too large and terribly empty. Try as he might, his head couldn’t seem to find the proper corner of the pillow to rest comfortably. He missed the soft angle of Scorpius’s shoulder where his head fit just right. In the half-haze between sleeping and waking, he kept instinctively rolling towards where he expected to find Scorpius’s warmth. Its absence roused him to disconcerted, lonely waking each time. 

Across the hall, Lily’s bed had never seemed so small. With the increasing regularity of holidays at the Potters’, the bed and room had become a familiar comfort to Scorpius that felt a lot like a second home. It was every inch the humble warmth and simple charm of a family home – something the Malfoy manor had always lacked, with its cavernous hallways and dim candelabras, and something part of Scorpius had always craved. His parents had always done their best to fill the tall rooms with warmth and keep Scorpius close – to resist the empty detachment the Manor made so effortless. But as a child, part of Scorpius had always dreamed of a small, humble cottage with only enough room for his parents and him. 

Tonight, Scorpius was coming to realize that it wasn’t the Potter’s house or Lily’s room itself that carried the comforts he loved so well here. They weren’t built into the house itself. They didn’t hide between the fresh-washed sheets. 

No, they were rooted in a person. 

Scorpius had never before stayed under this roof while fighting with Albus. (Then again, their fighting was a rare instance to begin with.) It was only a minute’s journey… a few feet down the hallway to Albus’s room, where Scorpius might find Albus’s arms still ready to take him in. Just imagining their comforting fit around him, the familiar weight of Albus’s head against his shoulder… how could the remedy to all his worries be so clear? 

Yet Scorpius had to bite his tongue to keep himself from getting up, and pressed himself down more tightly against the mattress. It wouldn’t be fair, wouldn’t be right, if he asked for Albus’s comfort and reconciliation, before Scorpius could even offer an explanation for why he’d pushed Albus away in the first place. 

Some inexplicable darkness, some fear, still hovered in his mind and heart. It was a confluence of different anxieties, and it wouldn’t let the horrible feel of his nightmare from the night before fade from his memory. The unthinkable prospect of that insurmountable chasm opening between him and Albus… Something much harder to mend than just an argument…

The distance between he and Albus still ached, but Scorpius finally found sleep with the final thought that here was somehow safer. The journey down the hall, though short, seemed far too treacherous. 

~

Breakfast was uncharacteristically quiet. So was lunch. Albus and Scorpius hardly spoke, leaving James to do most of the blabbering. 

From her seat, Ginny couldn’t help noticing the way Albus kept sending apprehensive, almost wistful looks in Scorpius’s direction. Scorpius, meanwhile, kept his head bent over his plate. He sat deep inside what seemed a morose, self-imposed bubble of separation. 

When Ginny started clearing the dishes, Albus got up without a word and trudged from the room with a disheartened slump to his shoulders. Scorpius finally looked up only to watch him go – a hint of regret and no small amount of torment showing on his own face. 

Just what was going on with the two of them? Ginny knew it certainly wasn’t her place to meddle, but she could sense a complement of dejection and uncertainty growing around Albus, and it pained her terribly. Her youngest son had always been more sensitive, more easily injured in small, invisible ways than her other children. Accordingly, she’d developed an extra sensitivity for the times when Albus seemed most vulnerable. She could tell her son, for whatever reason, was hurting. And of course, she hadn’t missed Scorpius’s uncharacteristic sullenness… 

Now that she thought of it, it had started after her conversation with them both a few mornings ago, after she’d come into Albus’s room and seen the confirmation of what honestly hadn’t been such a shock. She’d known the boys were close. Anyone could see they were both the most important thing in each other’s worlds – if not their whole worlds…

She’d never seen them fight, or even argue. She’d never seen them cause each other anything other than joy… 

This couldn’t be somehow connected to her finding out about their relationship, could it? No… she was just being a paranoid mother, it couldn’t have anything to do with her. 

This must be the hardest part of being a parent: Having to stay on the sidelines.

~

Early the next morning, Ginny came downstairs into the living room to find Albus curled up on the couch. Alone. He had a book open across his legs, but it was apparent his attention couldn’t have been more distant. He had his head turned towards the window behind the couch, a forlorn emptiness reflecting in the glass as the rising sunlight crossed the lawn outside.

“Albus? You’re up early.”

Albus turned his head slowly, seeming to need a moment to rouse himself from the depths of his own head. 

“Oh… yeah. Couldn’t really sleep.” 

Another night, but still his bed didn’t feel right alone. 

“Scorpius still sleeping?” Ginny asked cautiously. 

Albus looked down, knotting and reknotting his fingers in his lap. 

“I assume so. Wouldn’t really know, though. He’s in Lily’s room.” 

The way Albus’s voice dipped low and hitched at the end left no doubt. Something was in need of major fixing. 

Ginny looked down for a long moment, sorting through her words while her hands smoothed over the fabric of her pants. This would be just as important as it was delicate. 

“Albus.” She came over to sit beside him on the couch. “Would you like to talk about whatever’s been going on?”

Albus didn’t look at her. He started flipping the book in his lap open and shut again. He was silent for so long, Ginny began wracking her brain for the right coaxing, with words that wouldn’t seem too invasive. Both boys seemed quite petrified by the idea of discussing or even acknowledging their intimacies to anyone else. 

But finally, Albus blurted in a frustrated rush, “I don’t know what’s been going on!” 

He visibly tried to regain control of himself, his fingers fighting forcefully against the cover of the book now. Ginny reached out to still his anxious fingers, just resting her hand over both of her son’s. Albus seemed to melt a little, his frustrated energy dissipating. 

“He won’t tell me what’s wrong. I tried to talk to him about it and he just shut me out. He hasn’t been to my room, we’ve barely even talked these last couple days… But I don’t know what I did, I don’t understand…”

“Don’t assume it’s your fault, honey. Maybe he just has some personal things to work through alone.”

“But we’ve never had things like that before. No matter what it was, we always faced it together…”

Ginny’s heart lurched in the way that made the entire world seem like it had suddenly been tilted on its side. From the quaver in Albus’s voice, terrible anticipation of his tears followed. 

But just before she could reach out to him, he quickly fumbled to his feet. “I-I should have just stayed in bed… Don’t expect me for breakfast, okay?” 

An instant later, he had scrambled from the room, hugging the book to his chest and hunched over in a protective manner around it – though likely to protect himself more than the book. 

Ginny stared after him helplessly. She’d learned the lesson a long time ago that it was impossible to try to get children to talk about their problems before they were ready. Pushing them would only make them resentful, and take them that much longer to work through. But with Albus so clearly wounded, and this disagreement happening right under her own roof, Ginny wasn’t sure how long she would be able to make herself sit back, or how long she could keep hoping the boys would find the answer themselves without any nudging. 

When you cared so much – as Albus and Scorpius clearly both did – sometimes the clearest things could seem so far from reach. 

~

“Where’s Albus?” Scorpius asked as soon as he appeared in the kitchen and noticed Albus’s empty chair at the breakfast table. 

Laying out the final dishes, Ginny looked up and delivered as gently as possible, “He doesn’t seem to be feeling too well today.”

From where he stood in the doorway, Scorpius’s face noticeably crumpled in a sudden wash of guilt and concern. Ginny surprised herself with the surge of protectiveness that rose towards the boy. 

Albus couldn’t understand whatever it was that was playing out in Scorpius’s head, and that was clearly causing her son considerable pain – but she knew beyond a doubt that Scorpius would never, for any reason, wish Albus pain on purpose. This was some kind of miscommunication between teenaged boys who could neither understand nor express their feelings very well – especially the feelings that ran deepest. Scorpius seemed just as injured as Albus.

Completely oblivious to the morose lethargy with which Scorpius took his seat, James cracked, “Albus isn’t feeling well, eh? Maybe we oughta go set off some exploding crackers or stink bombs in his room. What do you think, Scorp? That’d get him laughing.”

Before Scorpius had to match his forced smile with equally forced words, Ginny cut in, “Don’t even think about it, James. Your brother needs rest and peace. Don’t bother him, do you hear me?” 

Taken aback by his mother’s sudden sternness, James raised his hands in mock innocence. “Fine, fine, Albus gets a pass today.”

James nodded in Scorpius’s direction. “Tell him I hope he feels better, yeah?”

Scorpius looked up with a slightly pale look. “Why ask me to tell him?”

James squinted his eyes at Scorpius for a moment, as if he might be the sick one. “Because… you two are always attached at the hip, even if one of you caught the plague?”

Scorpius suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe. Would that still be the case, after this? Would Albus’s family still even welcome him among them anymore? He hadn’t meant to do anything so drastic, certainly not to inflict so much on Albus… 

With all of the weight and complications that had suddenly seemed to appear around them both, it had seemed the safer, the sensible thing, to leave their intimacy aside for just a little while… He had never meant for everything to spiral so out of control. 

He should have tried to explain his sudden fears to Albus, should have told him about his nightmare… He should have tried to explain how there was nothing, absolutely nothing, worse in the world than losing Albus forever. But god, had Scorpius done it himself now?

Scorpius’s head reeled with one horrible thought after another as he ate without tasting a single thing. If Albus couldn’t even face seeing him at breakfast, what if Albus didn’t want to see him for the rest of the holidays? What if he asked Ginny to make Scorpius go home? …what if he asked Harry?

Scorpius stayed in his seat, seemingly frozen and rooted there even after James and Lily each finished and left the table. Scorpius just sat there, staring at the wooden tabletop unseeingly. 

“Scorpius?” Ginny prodded him gently. “Honey, are you also not feeling well? Did you two both catch the same thing?”

Scorpius didn’t lift his head all the way, only his eyes. They were dark and clouded with misery that choked Ginny’s heart. 

“You could maybe say that…” 

Just like Albus always radiated confidence and exuberance in Scorpius’s company, Ginny had gotten to know Scorpius as a two-way mirror to that bond that made them both stronger and complete when they were together. Scorpius had spent a couple holidays with them by now, but Ginny had only gotten to know him under Albus’s influence. Was this quiet, desolate boy closer to who Scorpius was without Albus? Ginny’s heart twisted at the difference, to see all the life that had escaped him. 

Scorpius murmured only just loud enough to make out, “If…if Albus wants me to leave, I’ll understand.” Every word sounded like it plunged a knife into him.

This couldn’t go on. 

Distinctively un-neatly, Ginny cleared the last armful of dirty dishes from the table and deposited them in the sink. She dried her hands on a towel and quickly gathered her mess of concerned thoughts into a plan. 

She closed the kitchen door, and then sat down in Lily’s normal chair, directly beside Scorpius. 

“I think we both know that’s not going to fix anything, and that’s certainly not what Albus wants.”

Scorpius looked up at her hesitatingly. “Do we…? I’m not so sure…”

“I am,” Ginny stated, her voice brokering no argument. 

Scorpius started gnawing ruthlessly on his bottom lip, looking the epitome of troubled and unsure. Ginny could almost literally see it with her eyes – the scrabble of unaddressed, unreleased fears and regrets Scorpius was only just managing to keep his head above to breathe through. 

“Do you want to talk about whatever it is? With Albus, I know it’s hard sometimes to fully understand the way your own actions impact on the people closest to you, the ones you love most… Sometimes they’re so close, it seems like they must just get it, but when they don’t, or when they misunderstand, it’s hard to trace everything back to the point where you went off-course. 

“So, let’s just start with you and what’s going on there. I promise you, no one else will hear a word of this if you don’t want them to. Not even Albus, if it’s something you’re not ready for him to know.”

Scorpius’s empty expression had become a bit bewildered. “But I…I’m hurting him…”

“And it’s clear you’re hurting too. You both feel what the other does.”

Scorpius took a moment to process this, then backed up again to Ginny’s previous words. Recounting his nightmare and the root of his fears had seemed impossible whenever he tried to do it looking into Albus’s face. The stakes were too high, the emotions had been so strong, they’d become restrictive bonds around him…

Scorpius knew that some small part of all this had been initiated by the rush of horror he’d felt when Ginny had found them together in Albus’s bed. For one moment, Scorpius had had a fleeting vision of everything crashing down – of her disapproval, of both of their fathers hearing about it through the worst means…

But none of that had happened. Instead, Scorpius had been stunned and deeply touched by Ginny’s supportive words that same morning. He believed now that she really would guard their secret until he and Albus were ready. 

Now, she was the only person who really understood what the two of them shared – the only one who knew how terribly high the stakes were for both of them in solving this. And of course, no one else could understand her son’s heart any better…

A long silence stretched on as Scorpius wrangled with his thoughts. Ginny waited through it. Finally, she opened one last door. She wanted the tortured boy sitting before her to know that she was there for him, too.

“I think every boy needs a mother to talk to... Even if it isn't his own.”

Finally, her words pierced the dark, confusing haze that had closed around Scorpius in the last few days. They made something entirely different suddenly resonate inside him, something he hadn’t felt in a long time… 

He could suddenly remember the glimmer of that steadfast faith - that no matter how poor your decisions were or how misguided your actions became, there would always be at least one person who would remain by your side…

For a moment, he was back at the breakfast table from a few mornings ago, watching Ginny lovingly ruffle Albus’s hair. For a briefer moment, he was sitting beside his own mother in the library in the Manor, reading out from a history book while she stroked his hair. 

She had always been there to answer all his nervous questions before he went off to Hogwarts the first time. She had always had a supportive smile and a comforting embrace to offer him – even before he fully understood what they were for. But she had had to leave him before he got to ask her any of the really tough questions, about how anyone – much less a teenage boy all on his own – could handle the confusing, terrifying depths of loving someone like he did Albus. 

He had been keeping so much inside – so many worries and fears he’d barely even been able to put a name to. He had been trying to keep such a tight lid on everything, afraid to look too closely at the thorns lining the outside of his and Albus’s deepening relationship. It suddenly all just cracked. Since his mother had gone, there’d been nobody other than Albus to talk to about the difficulties that defied easy description or solution. But when Albus was in the center of it with him, in no better position to find their safe way out… 

Scorpius almost shook with the rush of raw emotions he finally let course freely. In a haven where his words were safe and secret, he could finally give shape to and face the turmoil that had hovered at a distance.

“I-I’m scared what will happen when Albus’s dad finds out. About us. I know that he doesn’t really approve of me to begin with. No matter whatever I’ve done or not done, it pales in comparison to what’s already passed with my father… 

“He’s already forbidden Albus once from seeing me and I…” Scorpius raised one shaking hand to half-cover his face, “I don’t know if I could bear it again, especially not now. When I’ve come to need him so much… I’ve always needed him, but now after I know what it is to be so close to him, to let him in so much…”

Scorpius let out a rush of breath, with the force of a punch to the heart. “And now I know that because I’ve been scared, scared of losing him, I’ve made him feel afraid he’s losing me because I didn’t know how to explain to him…” 

Both of his hands dropped to knot in front of him, as he finally looked up at Ginny with a beseeching look of guilt and displacement. “I’m so sorry… I don’t know what to do…”

“Oh, dear, don’t you apologize.” Ginny cut in firmly. 

She leaned forward in her chair to place one of her hands over both of Scorpius’s, trying to ease the self-punishing tension there. It was the same gesture she’d made with Albus, and it had come just as naturally again this time. 

“Alright. Scorpius, I can tell you’re dealing with a lot under all this, but let’s set one thing straight first. The biggest thing.” She squeezed his hands gently. “Harry will never try to keep you two apart again. It was a terrible mistake the first time, and he learned that the hard way, at both your and Albus’s expense. And besides, no matter how he reacts to the fact that you two are more than friends, I promise you I will never let him try anything like that again. I’ll make sure of it.”

Scorpius took a moment to process Ginny’s assurances. One of his hands instinctively opened a bit to hold onto one of her fingers where it covered his own.

“Mr. Potter did it the first time because he thought I was the dark cloud in the prophecy. He thought I was putting Albus in danger. But… what if I do hurt him? What if I do turn out to be bad for him? I know how vulnerable and helpless I feel when I think of being without him… I don’t want to be the cause of that in him…”

“But what about when you two are together? Just like you have been for years now, ever since you two met. If not for Harry’s meddling and school holidays, I bet you two would have spent every day together. You may feel vulnerable now, but how do you usually feel around him?”

“Stronger. He makes me stronger,” Scorpius replied immediately. The words were familiar, cherished in his memory forever, and yes, he knew they were true. 

Ginny nodded encouragingly. “Exactly. There isn’t a single thing you could say or do that would make me doubt that you two are good for each other. He needs you, like you need him, but that doesn’t mean you should think you’re somehow making him vulnerable. 

“Scorpius, I don’t believe you honestly think Albus would be better off without you. You’re disregarding the fact that, with you, Albus can be much more than even he himself ever dreamed. With you, he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him. He’s more confident with himself, just as he is, when he has you at his side. And I think he does the same for you.”

Scorpius cast his eyes upwards with a look desperately hopeful.

“You see? You don’t bring the threat of darkness. You make his world brighter than it ever was. And trust me… a mother can tell these things.” 

She smiled at him firmly, until a flicker of light began to appear in Scorpius’s face. Yet his budding smile was still a bit wobbly, and his eyes still looked too close at risk to tears.

Following a deep-rooted instinct, Ginny leaned forward and drew Scorpius to her. Scorpius froze at first, stunned. Then he melted into the embrace in the same instinct that had moved Ginny to initiate it. He could no longer remember if his own mother’s embraces had felt any different, but he found it didn’t much matter. The warmth was the same. 

He pressed his forehead close against her shoulder as the weight he’d been carrying over the last few days finally started finding its way out of him and dispelling into the air. There was nothing he could say to truly express his gratitude for her acceptance and understanding. 

Instead, he just clung to her as the wall he’d constructed in his vain attempt to protect both Albus and himself from the unpredictable power of their bond came crashing down.

Before either of them realized it, Scorpius was finally letting himself go and feel. He shook slightly as the tears came, and Ginny held him more tightly. She stroked his hair and hushed him when he hiccupped a bit.

It didn’t last for long. Scorpius’s overflow of emotions ebbed just as quickly as it crested. Once his tears subsided to just the occasional sniff, he wiped his eyes firmly and started to pull back. Ginny kept her hands on his shoulders, ready with a supportive smile. 

“It’s okay, honey. I understand. It’s hard to feel such big emotions for someone, and it’s frightening. I know. But I also know, you’re going to do what’s right by him. You don’t have anything to be scared of.”

Scorpius responded with a wobbly smile, but the one most genuine and lighthearted of the morning thus far.

That was when the kitchen door opened with a thunk and revealed Albus. He trudged in rubbing his eyes with one hand, a gloomy tilt to his mouth. Then he looked up, froze in place when he saw Scorpius and his mother, and his expression wholly transformed. 

“Mum!” he exclaimed in horror, looking stricken at the sight of Scorpius’s clearly teary eyes. “What did you do to him?!”

Ginny held up her hands in a display of innocence as she stood up to face her son. “As Scorpius will tell you, I was only trying to help.”

Albus fixed her with an uncomprehending glare, before looking with concern back to Scorpius… to see Scorpius now beaming at him in full force, despite the lingering flush to his face. Now Albus was really at a loss…

“It’s okay, Albus. Really. Everything’s okay.”

“…Everything?” Albus echoed, a hesitating, tentative hope in his voice. 

“Yes. Everything,” Scorpius confirmed, still grinning as he stood up from the table. “And you can thank your Mum…”

“At some later time. I’ll just be going to do the laundry now…” Ginny interjected quickly, before sliding out the door behind Albus with one last smile and wink in Scorpius’s direction. 

Albus looked back and forth between Scorpius and the door for a moment longer. “I don’t…”

“Albus.” Albus could only spend a moment taken aback by the raw, loving sentiment in Scorpius’s voice, before Scorpius quickly wrapped him in the tightest and closest of embraces. 

“Sco… Scorpius? Are you alright? Everything’s really okay?” Albus asked hesitantly, wary of ruining the positive turn this morning had suddenly taken, but still not understanding… 

At first he only tentatively returned the hug, as if afraid Scorpius might pull away at any moment. When Scorpius only squeezed him more tightly, Albus finally started to believe. Relief flooded into him as he leaned into Scorpius, clutching his friend equally as close.

They just held each other in the middle of the kitchen for a while, grateful for the reassurance of each other’s proximity again. Taking in the soothing warmth of the other’s body, making sure that yes, they still fit together perfectly, just like they always had. 

“I’m so sorry, Albus,” Scorpius murmured into his neck before pulling back halfway – just enough to see Albus’s face. “I just-… I was scared, and I didn’t know how to deal with it properly.”

“Scared of what?” Albus asked, one of his hands running over Scorpius’s back – just needing to keep touching him, comforting him. 

“I started thinking too much what would happen if your dad found out, or if mine did. I started worrying they might try to forbid us from seeing each other and I couldn’t face even the thought…”

Albus took a deep, pained breath, finally beginning to understand a bit. 

“I just got so scared, because I knew what a wreck I would be if that ever happened. If I couldn’t keep being with you. And then I started thinking – what if being with me risks you becoming a wreck like that too? What if I was bad for you?”

“Oh. Oh, Scorpius. You’re such an idiot.”

Scorpius gave a wobbly smile. “I know.”

Albus returned the smile with a shaky but relieved laugh. He lifted a hand to cup Scorpius’s cheek in his fingers. He whispered to him, “I’ll only be a wreck if you do this to me again. If you leave me wondering what I did wrong or leave me alone… Please don’t ever do that again.”

“Never,” Scorpius swore, his hushed voice solemn. “I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to you, even when I don’t know the right words. You’re too important to me… You’re everything…”

Scorpius’s words were halted by the soft press of Albus’s lips against his own. Scorpius immediately gripped Albus’s shoulders as his lips molded to the shape of Albus’s mouth.

Together, they slowly, gently patched together, painted over, and sealed whatever temporary fault lines had opened between them. They didn’t pull back until they were both positive the repair was watertight. Their giddy, adoring smiles matched.

“Come back to bed with me. Right now,” Albus murmured, an undeniable love struck shine to his eyes now. “I haven’t been able to sleep a wink without you anymore. Well, I couldn’t really do much of anything without you, truth be told…”

Scorpius reached down to squeeze his hand. “Nothing would make me happier than spending all day in bed with you.”

Albus grinned sunshine, and Scorpius’s heart flipped. Albus tipped in to peck Scorpius on the lips one more time before turning to leave the kitchen, pulling Scorpius with him by the hand. 

They crept up the stairs, into Albus’s room, and closed the door firmly behind them. The only traces they left were their soft voices and gentle laughter.

But for Ginny, listening from the hallway, it was all she needed to know that everything was once again as it should be.

**Author's Note:**

> Incase anybody noticed... I did realize after I finished writing this that actually, no one besides Albus and Scorpius would remember anything that happened in the first alternate timeline world. Meaning Ginny wouldn't remember Harry forbidding Albus from seeing Scorpius, so Scorpius wouldn't be able to talk about it with her... Please do me a favor and forget that time-travel detail, since I couldn't really see a way around it. :') Much appreciated! Hope it didn't detract from the fic and thanks for reading!


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